The Pain Made Me Strong ~ Levi x Reader

Chapter 16

Y/n’s POV-

     It had been two years since I was forced to join the Cadet Corps and as we all drew closer to graduation tensions began to rise with the prospect of who was going to be in the top ten and which regiment everyone would be going to. For me though, I was already obligated to serve the Survey Corps, so I tried to stay out of the regiment drama that would occasionally arise.

     Eren was very determined to finally become a scout in a year and liked to have me tell him stories of the months I had spent with the Survey Corps and the last two years with the Corporal. I really was becoming Eren’s sister of sorts and we were able to rely on each other during training.

     Even with this sibling relationship we had, I still tried my hardest to stay out of the fights he would cause while speaking about joining the Survey Corps. He would argue with those who just wanted to stay safe in the interior, calling them cowards, which often caused people like Jean to become angry.

     I can’t really blame those who just want to be safe within the interior, if I had any family left and could guarantee their safety in the interior, I would try to work there too. I had given up trying to explain this to Eren because he would never listen.

     He occasionally brought me up in his petty arguments, explaining to others my stories of the Survey Corps, which often caused me to have to leave to avoid Jean becoming angry with me as well. Ever since that mission a year and a half ago, Jean, Marco, and me had become pretty good friends, and I didn’t want to ruin that just because I was joining the Survey Corps.

     Over the past two years I had felt my strength grow to a point beyond what I could ever have imagined thanks to Levi’s intense training. With only one year left of private training with the Corporal, we began shifting our training from stamina and skill training, to more mission based training, working together so that I could work on skills we couldn’t teach me, like quick decision making during a mission. 

     We always just worked with training dummies, but recently Erwin has been talking with Levi about an upcoming expedition to create more supply bases on the way to Shiganshina district to prepare for a later expedition to take back Wall Maria, and he explained that the Survey Corps was low in numbers, meaning I would most likely have to come along.

     He explained how they would rather go with a small group of very skilled soldiers rather than risking all the, already dwindling, soldiers they had. After Erwin had explained this though, Levi began acting very strange. He began arguing with Erwin about a subject I couldn’t make out. He was very frustrated after that and our training became much more intense.

     The Levi that I had come to know over these two years, the Levi who was kind and talkative, the Levi who Hanji had told me no one ever got to see but me, was gone. He became cold, anytime I would come to give him tea or help him clean he would dismiss me, telling me, “If you have time to do that, then you have time to train more for this upcoming expedition.”

     Levi grew more frustrated when he would see me talking with my friends, he would drag me away for a last minute training session. I know that he was just trying to make me stronger, but he wouldn’t give me a break. I either had to be with him training, or training on my own. 

     Bags began to form under Levi’s eyes, as if he wasn’t sleeping at all and I began to grow worried. Visits from Erwin became more frequent as he began explaining the plans for the expedition to Levi and I, and Levi would always argue with Erwin on why I was going on the mission.

      No matter how much Levi argued with Erwin, he just ignored Levi, continuing to explain his plan. Since Levi hadn’t spent too much time with his special operations squad members, they would be lead by Miche in a different section of the formation.